"Remco looks good, motivated" - Tadej Pogacar & UAE wary of Evenepoel's ITT prowess ahead of first time-trial at 2024 Tour de France
Cycling
The fight for the Maillot Jaune at the 2024 Tour de France is likely to take another turn on stage 7 as the riders take on their first individual time-trial of the Grand Tour.
Time-trial world champion Remco Evenepoel starts the day 2nd in the general classification, just 45 seconds behind race leader Tadej Pogacar. Whilst it might seem unlikely such a deficit could be completely overturned, it's not out of the question. As such, Pogacar and the rest of UAE Team Emirates are wary of the Soudal - Quick-Step leader.
"I think the favourite is Remco Evenepoel for the time-trial. He's a rider with the condition for thus course,'' previews UAE Team Emirates sports director, Joxean Matxin, in conversation with Cycling Weekly. "Tadej will be fighting for the best result. He has worked and worked and worked on his time trialling, he’s got the condition, he’s got a comfortable position, but I don’t know how he’ll go in comparison to the favourites. I trust in Tadej but how he’ll fare against the rest, I don’t know."
Pogacar has had mixed fortunes in Tour de France time trials over the years. From taking the Maillot Jaune in stunning circumstances in his debut year, to last year seeing Jones Vingegaard destroy him against the clock as the Dane powered towards the overall victory for the second straight year.
"I think Remco looks good, motivated, I think to be with the top two on the Galibier will motivate him for a time trial, terrain he is more suited for," Matxin continues. "I think 29-30 minutes for the winner. I think around this margin [15-20 seconds between Remco and Pogačar] if all goes well, if there’s not any problem, it should be around there. But a good day and good sensations for Tadej, he could be closer; a really good day for Remco and it could be bigger for him."
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Five world tour debutants to watch next season
Popular news
Latest comments
- Most of these have nothing to do with rider safety or are completely unachievablevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Depends on how fast the Cipressa would be beforehand and in what condition Philipsen would bevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Some things sound crazy until they aren't, what if he's actually right? 🤷vappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Why make a comment to state the obvious? Of course MvdP is much better at CX than Pogacar, does anyone doubt that But that wasn't his pointvappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- If you look at road alone obvi Pogacar is the better rider. But maybe MVDP is the better overall rider since he can win in three plus disciplines?mobk23-12-2024
- Correction on 2021 Olympics. It was mainly the Dutch ladies who didn’t know who was leading the race. Other teams like the Germans and Italians knew that Kiesenhofer was out front.mobk23-12-2024
- A champion turning into a sore loser. Or is he on coke again?
UltimateOpportunist23-12-2024 - If you look at the major races they’ve both been in, van der Poel had the early edge as lately Pogacar has had the advantage. It’s all on procyclingstats.RidesHills23-12-2024
- I wouldn’t assume Tadej can’t win at cross. He did a cross race, not a World Cup, a few years ago and crushed the field. It was a minor race. But he can win anywhere.mij23-12-2024
- I wonder what would happen if Pogacar attacked on the Cipressa instead of the Poggio in San Remo? Would MvdPoel still be able to follow?Ride197423-12-2024